Some photos and little vids from Thanksgiving up north

Hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving! With beautiful, warm weather this year, had a wonderful day with family up north. And, yay! - I also took a 5km walk, accompanied for a bit by my beautiful granddaughter and a friend, in a pristine empty forest... marvellous! There was a very large, old turtle on the trail that I thought I had but somehow didn't photo or record. Aisha's one year old now (Oct 3rd - I was too sad to post since that was also Lola's birthday). Flynn, the large Australian Shepherd, is one of my favourite dogs  -he's the reason I got Aisha- and he's like a daddy to her! Some photos & short videos...

My granddaughter, Iris, who's 6 years old in a few weeks!

My grandson, Archer, who's 3 years old now. Sweetest little guy ever.

Aisha camouflaged in the woods! She had a great day running on the trail (it was pristine clean and absolutely empty). The rest of the day was spent racing with my daughter's two Australian Shepherds, Flynn and Mika, and playing energetically with Donald, a barn cat who's maybe her age, who knows, the way high energy tiny dogs and young cats do.

With the summer-like day, its warmth close to the earth as the air cooled above, a delicate fog hugged the base of the trees, magical...

Aisha found the ancient turtle - there are egg-laying spots in the area (I thought I videoed but musn't have hit record) - it was maybe 18" long and a foot wide, dark grey, and did not hide its head but looked at me. A special moment that I can only share as a verbal image in the voiceover and in writing.

It was a walking-from-behind video shot. I turned around to talk to Steve, who accompanied us. Iris also stopped. We were just going to pose for a still that could be taken from the video later, but who can resist hugging a beautiful granddaughter!

Aisha in absolute adoration, and Flynn is gentle and protective of her. Amazing to see - my daughter captured the moment in some photos -

Flynn is sitting on his haunches! He's about 8 years old now. Look at their colouring!

Green fire! At 4 years old (he's 39 now), my son drew a picture and said, 'There's green fire in your life and mine."

Donald was a barn kitten and has grown up to be a large, fluffy, affectionate cat who never uses his claws on anyone. While she may do a sheep-herding nipping thing on your pant cuffs, Aisha's never bitten anyone. What darlings! They played all over the house and outside later, when Donald took Aisha into the dark and forbidden woods.

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An impressionistic response to Truffaut’s, The 400 Blows 1959

The 400 Blows, or "faire les quatre cents coups” (to ‘raise hell’), directed by Truffaut, 1959

The luscious blacks and whites, the compositions of each scene, tight and densely woven, characters, spotlighted, singular, located in packed scenes, the tableaux of Paris we pass through in the late 50s, memorable, one wants to retain the whole film, its cave-like compositions, closeness, and the colour world we live in with that lense, that focus, the gentleness of Truffaut’s camera capturing common scenarios and traumatic inner realities, the realism of a mischievous hellion of a boy, Antoine, caught in an unwantedness.

His stepfather, Julien, tries to rein him in but has no real emotional commitment to the boy. His mother, Gilberte, was ambivalent about having him, his grandmother saved him, insisting on his birth, raised him until she grew too old and frail, and couldn’t keep him. In the film, his mother, while neglectful, does love him, does try intermittently, but doesn’t stand up for him when he gets into trouble. He runs away often and caring school friends look after him. Stealing, and then getting caught returning a typewriter he stole from the company where his stepfather works, he ends up in a Juvenile Detention centre. It is near the ocean, as he had requested, and his stepping, after a long run from the prison, into the ocean surf is a moment of freedom and the final exuberant scene.

The acting is remarkable. As The 400 Blows is semi-autobiographical, we know Antoine grows up to be the brilliant French director, Truffaut, for whom, at age 27, The 400 Blows is his first full-length feature.

For anyone who’s had a difficult childhood, it’s a film of deep understanding and surely resonates with many people on that level. In real life, it has a heroic ending in Truffaut’s success and place in French film history as a central figure in the French New Wave movement.

Yet, for me, it is the compassion he shows this young teen, the camera angles, dialogue, Antoine’s escaping and running, this boy who represents Truffaut himself, who is as he is, that fills one with appreciation as rich as the sumptuous scenes of black and white filmography.

And, lastly, for this viewer, the scene of the crowds of children watching a movie in a theatre, a film we don’t see, perhaps we are the movie being watched and enjoyed, an adorable ocean of small, young, trusting, loving faces, so sweet, will remain with me, a joy.

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